Can anyone advice about renting?

[curtains]

For someone moving to London soon. Will be working on Oxford Street. But need a place to stay. May possibility move with a friend so a 2 bed flat would be great. Person can pay £800 a month rent or possibility £1600 between 2.

Can anyone point me in the direction of where to look, areas/agencies etc, am really not sure where to start.

Thanks

Also pitfalls to avoid that someone with little experience wouldn't have thought of...

The further out they are the cheaper the rent will be, have a look at zoopla / rightmove to get an idea of costs. £800 isn’t going to get someone a flat of their own in London so they’ll need to look at sharing with or without their friend. Flats get snapped up in seconds so they’ll need to be quick.

No i didnt mean get a flat alone, they know they'll need to share. Either with a stranger or a pal.

The person lives hundreds of miles away from London so im not sure how they can snap a flat up if they aren't there to see it?
Sorry to be dim, any advice would be great.

Its worrying to hear flats get snapped up so quickly. How do people living far away get a flat?

You don't need to be in Greater London. Look further out along Central line, Victoria Line etc or even rail services.

Have you any advice about how best to look? I googled and gumtree came up and some agencies. Im just wondering if theres any advice about what to avoid.

I realise flats are expensive.

Am now wondering about renting a room or getting a flatshare. Has anyone got any idea where to start?

Spare room.co.uk

Do you know which part of London you'd like to move to?

£1600 is less than I paid about 6 years ago for a two bee but that was in zone 2. I suspect you'll need to look at zones 3 and out for that sort of money.

My DS rents in Putney for about £800 a month (that's a room in a shared house). Gumtree seems to be the way a finding rooms.

Spare room.co.uk is a good place to start. Most people can’t afford a place by themselves in London fir the first few years.

The room in a shared house in putney sound ideal. Ill check out spare room or gumtree thanks

Im wondering if id need to be in London to actually view a room? I wouldn't want to see something online and send a deposit and it turns out to be bogus. Im just wondering how to go about actually securing something. I live off the west coast of Scotland, not so handy!

Spareroom.co.uk is your answer. When i moved to London 10yrs ago, i found a place by asking for a skype viewing. They showed me round with the laptop and we chatted over the video. With zoom / teams, even easier now. The alternative is to pay for a fortnight short term let somewhere and just look like mad in those two weeks to get a place lined up.

If you are working in Oxford circus, i recommend looking at either end of the Victoria Line. Super quick and air conditioned!

Thats great to know, thanks

I used to work on Oxford Street and I lived in North Wembley. Commuted in on the Bakerloo line. Took about 50 minutes to get in and always got a seat as the train was pretty empty when I boarded. I liked living round there but I've no idea what it's like now!

But if you want more for your money, look at the Central or Bakerloo line stops and figure out the surrounding areas and look there for places to live.

If you find an area you like it's always worth seeing if they have a local Facebook group and posting there.

It’s a balance between cost of accommodation & cost of commute. The cost of travel within London is capped every day / week if you always use the same card, and you’ve at least got more options than if you’re dependent on one train line. I’ve got colleagues who live in Kent or Surrey but then have to pay ridiculous prices for peak travel.

You / they are likely to need to provide a deposit & maybe references, there might also be a credit check.

Can i ask for some help figuring out sparerooms? Ive seen a couple of nice places. But i cant get down to view them before my job starts. What should i do? I understand i can ask to zoom and see the place that way, which should be ok, but im really worried about sending a deposit to someone i dont know. I did read the safety tips on spareroom but im more confused than ever.

If anyone has any advice id be very grateful.

Also @EmpressaurusWitchDoesntBurn , what do you mean use one card?
Do you mean an oyster card? Ive heard of them but dont know how they work...if they are like a monthly travel pass or something else?

@FayeGovan same bank card. No need for Oyster. You need to use same bank card to get the cap and to ensure you’ve tapped out once you’ve tapped in.

DD has used spareroom.co.uk a couple of times for remote viewings. I'm not sure if she paid a deposit before arrival the first time, or signed a contract in advance. The second time the landlord was quite flexible and said she could sign the contract when she arrived, and wouldn't hold her to the 3 month minimum if it turned out she didn't like it.

It seems a pretty good site to me, better than something like gumtree as the information is much more detailed. If there are existing tenants maybe you can ask if they can be on the video viewing.

I don't know if there are ever problems or scams, but so far so good for us.

Thanks thats good to hear

Yes, this. Although on buses you only need to tap when getting on.

I load money onto my Oyster card every month & use that for travel because it makes budgeting easier, but contactless cards work fine.